7 Police Officers Arrested for Torturing Detainee to Death

Seven police officers serving with the Anambra State Command are in for trouble as they have been arrested for torturing a man to death.
The arrested policemen who are with the Special Anti Robbery Squad located in Awkuzu, Anambra State, were said to have illegally arrested one Ejike Bob Manuel and tortured him to death after disposing him of N3m, a car, handset, among other items. .
According to available information, the arrest was sequel to a petition and representation made by a Human Rights Advocacy Organisation, the Joint Legal Action Aids, to the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris; the Commissioner of Police in Anambra State; the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice; the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Anambra State; and the Director General, National Human Rights Commission.
The arrested officers include Inspector Adolphous Dimgba, Inspector Gabriel Imafidon, Sergeant Chukwudili Oyenka, Pat Amadike, Usman Bala Hamza, Theodore Igiede and Amaechi Ebele Okonkwo.
Also arrested and detained is one Jerome Aghachukwu, who allegedly masterminded the arrest and murder of the deceased.
Bob Manuel was said to have been arrested based on the report of Aghachukwu over a business transaction involving importation of pharmaceutical equipment in which the complainant had alleged that the deceased broke his words on the amount he was to pay him from the sales and commission.
The deceased was allegedly detained and tortured in the SARS facility. He reportedly died from the after effect of the gruesome torture.
The SARS in Awkuzu was said to have refused to release Manuel’s body for autopsy until a combined team of JLAA lawyers, led by Barrister Kingsley Ughe; the Inspector General of Police Monitoring Team; and a team of journalist stormed the SARS office.
Doctors, after conducting autopsy, revealed that death was caused due to the rupture of a kidney with tear measuring 0.124cm.
The death, according to medical reports, was caused due to the heavy physical torture to the deceased during the night of February 16, 2017.
JLAA says it intends filing an action at the Federal High Court on February 21 against the police and the alleged killer officers.
It said in a statement by Ughe: “We shall demand excruciating, punitive and exemplary damages.
“We have recovered the deceased G wagon vehicle, N3 million, handsets and other valuables prised away from the deceased.
“Today we are engaged in a deadly struggle for those who would intimidate, torture and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms.
“If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.
“SARS is as dangerous as a terrorist organisation.
“We insist that relevant authorities must look into the sociology of SARS.
“SARS is a tortured organisation.
“An organisation, tortured by the broken bones and spilled blood of innocence.
“The healthy man does not torture others – generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers.
“Brave men do not gather in the name of policing authority to torture and murder innocent individuals, so gagged and bound he cannot make even feeble resistance or defense.
“JLAA shall not relent in his determination to ensure that Ejike Bob Manuel and other victims of state abuse and lawlessness get justice.”